Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Hello again, I’ve been waiting for a word from the LORD, and He’s given me the focus of sincerity.

The LORD said in today’s scripture, Amos 5:21-24 (NLT)…“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. [22] I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. [23] Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. [24] Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.

Consider…
My wife and I enjoy movies, so much so that we have an AMC A-List membership. We enjoy being entertained by movies, it’s not our intent to be changed by them.

Unfortunately, a lot of “worship services” today are like the movies that seek to entertain rather than glorify God and edify His people.

The Apostle Paul warned about this in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NLT)…For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. [4] They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

Yet, this isn’t a new phenomenon, today’s scripture reveals the LORD’s scathing indictment of insincere worship by His chosen people.

And in Matthew 15:7-9 (NLT), Jesus decried…You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, [8] ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. [9] Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ ”

Too many professing Christians are lip service actors, rather than God’s life serving art. Let me remind you, Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) declares…For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We’re created anew to do!

As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit pleasa through Paul in Romans 12:1 (NLT)…And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Notice being a living sacrifice for God, rather than offering church service sacrifices to Him, is the true way to worship.

Which reminds me, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, and us, in John 4:23-24 (NLT)…But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

When I read ‘worship in spirit and in truth’, I hear worship with sincerity.

According to AI Overview, in the Bible, sincerity means honesty, purity of heart, and genuineness, free from hypocrisy, deceit, or pretense, reflecting a wholehearted devotion to God and His truth, often described with Greek words meaning “judged in sunlight” (clear, without flaw) or “uncorrupted”. It’s about having transparent motives, aligning inner intentions with outward actions, and serving God with truth, not just outward show.

I think my favorite part this overview is “aligning inner intentions with outward actions.” That’s because Jeremiah 17:10 (NLT) declares…But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

This brings up a key point, only God knows our secret motives. I say that because the preceding verse, Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT) explains…“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

I can’t speak for you, but I don’t fully know my secret motives. That means I can do what looks and feels right, for the wrong reasons. Alas, I think that’s what attending church service is for many of us.

Here’s what the Holy Spirit challenges me to remember, God says we are Christ church, not just attendees in a service.

God emphatically says through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)…Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, [20] for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

To better understand what that practically means, the Holy Spirit led me to Romans 8:5-14 (NLT) which explains…Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. [6] So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. [7] For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. [8] That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. [9] But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) [10] And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. [11] The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. [12] Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. [13] For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. [14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

That tells me that sincerity is outwardly living as true children of God by being led by His Spirit that lives within us. Indeed, that the Holy Spirit controls our inner thoughts and outer actions.

That looks like what Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45 (NLT)…But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! [45] In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

Guess what Jesus’ words means sincerity is blessing our enemies like Jesus. Let me remind you Romans 5:8-10 (NLT) testifies…But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. [9] And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. [10] For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

God sacrificed His Son for sinners, meaning people who wronged Him. Moreover, God made us right with Himself and restored our FRIENDSHIP, while we were still enemies.

You see, God’s inner nature of…

• Unconditional love
• Unending mercy
• Unfailing compassion

…outwardly expressed itself in unfathomable grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) emphasizes…For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, [9] not of works, lest anyone should boast.

We love to quote and claim God’s grace over ourselves, yet the sincerity of God’s grace looks like Colossians 3:12-13 (NKJV)…Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; [13] bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

The Holy Spirit is admonishing us to stop only talking about loving God and start letting His love living within us flow outwardly from us.

1 John 3:16-19 (NLT) says…We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. [17] If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? [18] Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. [19] Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

As the saying goes, “don’t talk about it, be about it”.

And as Daryl Coley sings in today’s song, let’s live the life we sing about in our song.

Today’s song is…
When The Music Stops

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)